Journal Craft Inspirations

I am delighted to bring you an Interview with Danny Gregory. Danny is well known to many from his books including - Everyday Matters, and A Creative Licence.   His new book ‘An Illustrated Life – drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers’ has just been published.

He lives in Greenwich Village, USA

(Danny’s biography follows at the end of this interview)

Welcome Danny and thank you for sharing your journaling experiences with us…

“Illustrated journaling gives you a way to slow down and see your world clearly. It is a meditation on the blessings you have and forgot to count.”

Danny, you have inspired thousands of people to draw something everyday through your ‘Everyday Matters’ book and group, but what do you do when you lose inspiration?
Above all, I don’t panic, I don’t despair. Inspiration is not a constant, that’s its nature. It must be wooed and cultivated.  So I look at other peoples’ work, visit museums, and relax. Then I just start drawing. If the results suck, I try again. I know I can draw, I know I will again, and that’s a all there is to it.

What is your best tip for overcoming the fear of the blank page?
I like the following exercise: Draw a grid on the page, say  a dozen to twenty boxes. Then, do a small drawing in one of the boxes, a drawing of anything sitting in front of you, and fill that whole box up with what you see, like a little window on the world. If that was fun, do another.

If you are still blocked and tortured, put the page away, then draw something the next day in another box. Because you don’t have much invested in a tiny drawing in a tiny box, it’s fairly easy to start that way. And regardless of how lousy any one or all of the drawings may be, I guarantee the full page, with all its little views, will look great.

Has your choice of media (journal type, pens, paints etc.) changed over the years?  What are your current favourites, and why?
I change my media all the time. I use different book sizes, different papers, different sorts of watercolors, different pens, pencils, crayons, markers. Currently I use a dip pen with India ink and artist quality Winsor-Newton watercolors in a book hand-bound by a friend with heavy watercolor paper.

What is the most surprising thing to have come out of your journaling?
Community. I have met so many people all over the world because of our shared interest in drawing in a book. What seems like as solitary, solipsistic activity has led me to a place of friendship and sharing that transcends drawing alone. It’s been a real miracle.

You have a new book published ‘An Illustrated Life’ can you tell us a little about the inspiration for this?
This book grew out of the many friendships I have made from drawing. I decided to collect together as many people as I could muster into one large gallery of journaling. I wanted to know more about how all of these people approach their sketchbook, their media, their history, their influences, and their attitudes. These questions, the answers, and a broad collection of work became this new book. As I say in the intro, it’s the sort of book I could never find, and so I had to make it. It is inspired me, and so far, many people seem to share my excitement.

Would you share a couple of your journal pages with us?

This a recent lunch. Drawn quickly, hungrily, with a dip pen.

This year, my wife and I decided not to buy each other a lot of crap for Xmas. Instead, I went shopping and took along my sketchbook rather than my credit card. I made her a little journal filled with all of the things I thought she might like. A friend bound the book together and made it into a necklace which I will gave to Patti for Christmas. This was drawn with a  waterproof pen,  and watercolors on a hot press paper, 3″x3″

A random photo inspired this. I drew it with a Rapidograph and color pencils, writing was done with a dip pen and India ink.

For 2009, do you have any creative challenges you have set yourself?
I would like to try drawing in two books, one very small, maybe under 10 square inches, and another very large, maybe three square feet. I would also like to draw more with a brush, and a fountain pen. It may be time to start painting, in oils, something I haven’t done since I was a teenager.

Future plans?
I have several pots bubbling. I am interested in the neurological benefits of drawing and how it connects to meditation, and what effect it has on the preservation of visual memory as one ages. I am also interested in using journaling to help people deal with tragedy and disease. And finally I am thinking of how drawing helps you to appreciate the mundane and everyday in a way that could help be an antidote to the rampant materialism that is at the heart of the current economic crisis.

What, to you, are the main benefits of keeping a journal?
Illustrated journaling gives you a way to slow down and see your world clearly. It is a meditation on the blessings you have and forgot to count. It is a way of creating memories, of distilling down the moment. It is also a great way to make a habit of drawing and being creative because it is non-threatening and as private as you want it to be. Regardless of your experience with drawing, it is a great thing to add to any life.

Danny Gregory – Brief Biography

Danny Gregory began keeping an illustrated journal when he was in his mid thirties, as a way to develop the habit of drawing and to deepen how he saw the world. Since then he has filled dozens of volumes and learned a lot about art and about life.

Danny was born in London, grew up in Pakistan, Australia and Israel, is a graduate of Princeton University, and lives in Greenwich Village with his wife and son. He is also the author of several books including: An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers; Everyday Matters: a memoir; and The Creative License: Giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are. His illustrations have been published in books and publications around the world.

Every day, thousands of creative people visit his website, DannyGregory.com, for discussions about art and creativity and a regular dose of his watercolor journals.

Click here for reviews and Danny’s podcast on his latest book “An Illustrated Life” – drawing inspiration from the private sketchbooks of artists, illustrators and designers.

Buy Danny’s books here -